Autologou cultivated conjunctival tranplantation for pterygium urgery

Purpoe To invetigate the afety and efficacy of autologou cultivated conjunctival tranplantation for the treatment of primary pterygium. Deign Propective nonrandomized clinical trial. Method Forty patient with primary pterygium were recruited. Exciion of the pterygium wa followed by recontruction uing a erum-free derived autologou cultivated conjunctival equivalent in 22 patient (group A) and conventional denuded amniotic membrane tranplantation in 18 patient (group B). In group A patient, conjunctival epithelial equivalent were contructed by the ex vivo expanion of conjunctival epithelial cell on human amniotic membrane (HAM). The main outcome meaure were conjunctival epithelialization, recurrence, urvival analyi, and incidence of complication. Reult The mean follow-up wa 14.1 ± 3.9 month (range, 12 to 25 month). Complete epithelialization wa achieved within five day after urgery in group A patient compared with approximately three week for group B patient. The proportion of patient that had true recurrence wa 22.7% in group A and 25.0% in group B. The mean time to recurrence wa 4.8 ± 1.6 month in group A and 5.0 ± 2.9 month in group B. No ocular complication were noted in group A, while one eye (6.0%) in group B developed cleral necroi aociated with a peritent epithelial defect. Concluion Tranplantation of an autologou cultivated conjunctival epithelial heet facilitated early potoperative epithelialization and recovery, and may aid in preventing eriou complication aociated with imple denuded HAM tranplantation, uch a cleral necroi and econdary infection. Thi may provide a novel method for conjunctival epithelial replacement in the treatment of ocular urface diorder.